London sewers hosted royalty Wednesday as Prince Charles descended down the capital’s deepest tunnel to mark 150 years since the sewerage network opened.

The heir to the British crown visited the newly completed Lee Tunnel and Abbey Mills pumping station, which Charles’s great-great-grandfather King Edward VII opened in 1865. The Lee Tunnel, a 635 million-pound ($1.2 billion CAD) extension to London’s sewer system, is expected to start funneling effluent by December, Thames Water Utilities Ltd. said.

The 7-kilometer, 75-meter-deep tunnel beneath east London’s Newham borough from Abbey Mills to the Beckton sewage-treatment works that was seen by the Prince of Wales, who’s president of WaterAid, forms part of Thames Water’s plans to clean polluted waters in the U.K.’s biggest city while modernizing and expanding the Victorian-era waste network.

AP Photo/Alastair Grant, PoolBritain's Prince Charles and Martin Baggs, the CEO of Thames Water, look at the interior during a visit to the Abbey Mills Pumping station.

Designed by engineer Joseph Bazalgette after the “Great Stink” of 1858, the system made to serve 2 million Londoners and help curb water-related diseases like cholera is now used by more than 6 million. That means about 39 million tons of excrement and waste spill into the Thames River every year.

“The Lee Tunnel has just been completed at Abbey Mills and this, along with the extensions and improvements at the five sewage works which discharge into the tidal river and the Thames Tideway Tunnel, due to begin construction next year, will greatly improve London’s great river for wildlife and people alike,” Martin Baggs, chief executive officer of Thames Water, said in a statement.

The capital’s waste and water utility was given the developmental go-ahead for the Thames Tideway “super sewer” in September. The 15-mile, 24-foot-wide tunnel is estimated to take seven years to complete and will cost about 4.2 billion pounds. Today’s proceedings took place a day after Thames Water was fined 220,000 pounds for allowing partially treated sewage to enter the River Blackwater in Surrey.

Prince Charles has toured a sprawling camp for Syrian refugees in Jordan, chatting with residents and sampling tea and bread on a walk down the main road.

The prince was accompanied on Sunday to the Zaatari refugee camp, home to 80,000 people, by Britain’s international development minister. More than 3 million Syrians have fled their war-torn country since 2011.

The heir to the throne is on a six-day Middle East trip. He told the BBC he fears there will be “very, very few” Christians left in the Middle East after the turmoil wracking the region.

He said the plight of Christians persecuted by Islamic extremists was “a most agonizing situation,” though it was important to remember they were just one persecuted minority among many around the world.

“But at the same time I fear that the problems in the Middle East are not going to go away immediately,” the prince said in a pre-recorded interview. “And so there is a danger that there is going to be very, very few left.”

If he succeeds his mother Queen Elizabeth II as monarch, Charles will become temporal head of the Church of England and take the title “Defender of the Faith.” He said that although the title refers to the Anglican faith, he believed the role involved protecting others’ freedom to worship.

“It always seems to me that while at the same time being Defender of the Faith you can also be protector of faiths,” he said.

On Saturday the 66-year-old prince began a six-day trip to Jordan and the Gulf states.

He met Iraqi Christian refugees in Amman and spent time with Jordan’s King Abdullah II, days after Islamic State militants released a video showing a captured Jordanian fighter pilot being burned alive.

Hundreds of people from Britain have joined militants in Syria. Charles said the number of young Britons turning to extremism was alarming — although “some aspect of this radicalization is a search for adventure and excitement at a particular age.”

He said “The frightening part” was how many people became radicalized through “the extraordinary amount of crazy stuff” on the Internet.

In Jordan, the U.K.’s international development minister, Justine Greening, said in a statement her country will pay an additional $150 million to help displaced Syrians and their host communities in Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon and Iraq.

The Prince of Wales has hit out at “ill-informed speculation” over his plans for kingship and insists he will know where to draw the line when it comes to expressing his views.

In a highly unusual move, his most senior courtier, Sir William Nye, wrote to The Times, which has serialized a controversial biography of the Prince, to say he knows the “limitations” that will be placed on him “should he” become king by outliving the Queen.

The letter, which would undoubtedly have been signed off by the Prince before it was sent to the newspaper, shows the extent to which the heir to the throne has been stung by days of criticism arising from the book.

Catherine Mayer, a journalist for Time magazine, wrote that the Queen had concerns about the direction in which her son would take the monarchy when she dies, and that Her Majesty feared Britain might not be ready for the “shock of the new.”

In particular, she suggested in Charles: The Heart of a King that the Prince would not be silenced over his views on architecture and the environment.

But Sir William, the principal private secretary to the Prince and the Duchess of Cornwall, suggested the 66-year-old Prince would learn from the example of his mother and his grandfather, George VI, both of whom maintained their neutrality by keeping their opinions to themselves.

He wrote: “Sir, There has been ill-informed speculation recently, in your columns and elsewhere, about the attitude of the Prince of Wales to the role of sovereign. His Royal Highness has always preferred not to comment on matters which relate to a future whose date is unknown, and would arise only after the death of his mother.

“After half a century in public life, few could be better placed than His Royal Highness to understand the necessary and proper limitations on the role of a constitutional monarch.

“Should he be called to the throne, the Prince of Wales will be inspired by the examples of his mother and grandfather, while drawing also on his own experience of a lifetime of service. He will seek to continue his service to this country and the other realms, to the Commonwealth and to the wider world.”

Earlier this week, the Prince’s aides had insisted they would “wait until the book is published” before passing judgment on it. They have not yet seen a copy and will get their first chance to do so when it is published today.

The fact that Sir William has written the letter based purely on what Clarence House has read in the media suggests that the Prince is worried that his reputation is being damaged and that he needed to respond quickly.

It is the second time in weeks that a member of the Royal family has taken unprecedented action to protect their reputation; last month the Prince’s brother, the Duke of York, made a public denial of having sex with a teenager.

Ms Mayer said in an interview with the London Evening Standard that she had been taken aback by the “intensity” of Clarence House’s attempts to belittle her work, by suggesting she had exaggerated the amount of time she had spent with the Prince.

She also stands by her claim that the Prince will be a very different monarch from his mother.

“It’s obvious,” she said. “She came to the throne at 25 and no one had any idea what her views were. She has remained inscrutable ever since.

“He, by sharp contrast, has built up this huge charitable empire, and has amassed many hours of speeches – so he’s coming to the throne with opinions that everybody knows. He is also a very different character.”

The Prince of Wales was racked with such doubts about his doomed marriage to Diana, Princess of Wales, that he told an aide on the eve of his wedding: “I can’t go through with it,” a new biography reveals.

Both the Prince and his young bride-to-be entertained thoughts of calling off the wedding because each knew that their relationship was deeply flawed.

While the then Lady Diana Spencer knew the Prince held a candle for Camilla Parker Bowles, her groom panicked that he was rushing into marriage with a girl he hardly knew.

AFP/Getty Images filesLady Diana, Princess of Wales and Charles, Prince of Wales at their wedding at St. Paul Cathedral in London July 29, 1981.

Catherine Mayer, whose unauthorized biography Charles: Heart of a King is published on Thursday, quotes a member of the Prince’s inner circle as saying that on the eve of the wedding in 1981 the Prince “was desperate.”

The future Princess, to whom he had been engaged for five months after a brief courtship, was “not the jolly country girl he had assumed,” but instead a vulnerable, complicated woman already suffering from an eating disorder.

He is said to have told his confidant: “I can’t go through with it — I can’t do it.” The same friend is quoted as saying that: “I always told him afterwards that if it had been a Catholic marriage, it could have been declared null. Because he wasn’t really [committed], because she started with the bulimia and everything before the wedding.”

Lady Diana, meanwhile, had found a bracelet intended for Camilla Parker Bowles which had the letters “GF” engraved on it. She believed they stood for “Gladys” and “Fred,” the pet names the Prince and Ms. Parker Bowles had given each other, though an alternative suggestion was that they stood for “Girl Friday,” another nickname the Prince had given her.

ARTHUR EDWARDS/AFP/Getty ImagesPrince Charles examines simulated surgery equipment as he opens the Surgical Innovation Centre and visits the Health Innovation Exchange (HELIX)
“Pop-Up” Studio at St. Mary's Hospital in west London last Wednesday.

Lady Diana later told her own biographer Andrew Morton that she confided in her sisters, telling them: “I can’t marry him, I can’t do this, this is absolutely unbelievable.” They told her it was too late to pull out because “your face is [already] on the tea towels.”

But, says Mayer: “She had no idea her bridegroom also had to be coaxed to the altar.” Clarence House has responded to the book by claiming Mayer overstated the exclusive access she was given to the Prince, which amounted to a nine-minute conversation, according to an aide.

Monday, Mayer hit back, telling the BBC: “I had some help from Clarence House to not only attend events that press could accredit for, but also to talk to members of his inner circle and his friends.”

The book also contains fresh evidence about the extent to which the Prince of Wales trusted Jimmy Savile, later unmasked as one of the worst predatory pedophiles Britain has ever known, even asking him to read his speeches for him to give him his thoughts.

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2015/02/03/prince-charles-almost-called-off-wedding-to-diana-biography-claims/feed/0stdJuly 29, 1981: Prince Charles kisses his bride, the former Diana Spencer, on the balcony of Buckingham Palace in London after their wedding.AFP/Getty Images filesCatherine-Mayer-Ch_3185526bARTHUR EDWARDS/AFP/Getty ImagesPeter Oborne: The Royals’ gift to republicanshttp://news.nationalpost.com/2015/01/06/peter-oborne-the-royals-gift-to-republicans/
http://news.nationalpost.com/2015/01/06/peter-oborne-the-royals-gift-to-republicans/#commentsTue, 06 Jan 2015 05:01:39 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=564499

As the Queen enjoyed her traditional Christmas at Sandringham, she was entitled to feel that life was good. The Royal family had put the Nineties – that tragic and very troubled decade when monarchists came close to despair – far behind it. There had been no major scandal. The arrival of Catherine Middleton, the mother of one bonny son, with another on the way, has been a breath of fresh air.

In September, the Queen is due to overtake her great-great grandmother’s all-comers record of 63 years and 15 days on the throne. She is held in greater love, admiration and respect even than Victoria was.

And yet, barely five days into the new year, the republican cause, after a long series of well-deserved setbacks, is celebrating its best week of the 21st century. A lot has changed, not for the Queen herself, but for the Royal family. It is back in trouble, having suffered two setbacks that do not bode well for the future.

The first of these concerns the Prince of Wales. Clarence House had been co-operating with Panorama – the BBC current affairs programme that notoriously interviewed Diana, Princess of Wales not long before she died – for a film called Reinventing the Royals.

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It deals with that very difficult period after the Princess’s death when the Prince, with the aid of his PR maestro Mark Bolland, set about mending his public image. These are deep waters and the Prince was spectacularly (though characteristically) unwise to get involved.

The film hints at tensions between Mr Bolland and Prince William, who reportedly called the PR man “Blackadder”. It suggests that the young prince felt he was exploited as part of a campaign to improve his father’s standing with the media.

Be that as it may, Clarence House exponentially increased the film’s impact by attempting to block it. James Harding, the BBC head of news, has cravenly given in and postponed the screening of the film. The broadcaster cites Clarence House’s failure to hand over archive footage, but surely it has plenty of its own?

This episode raises fresh questions about the Prince of Wales’s judgment. However, it has been overshadowed by the spectacular allegations, made to an American court, that the Duke of York was involved in some kind of sexual relationship with an under-age girl who, according to accounts, was being used as a “sex slave” by an American billionaire called Jeffrey Epstein.

These allegations have been denied in the strongest terms by Buckingham Palace. However, even if the Prince’s denials are accepted, the proven facts are grim enough.

What was the Prince doing, in the first place, with Epstein, a paedophile who was jailed in 2008 for soliciting young girls for under-age prostitution? The two men were close enough friends for Epstein to have been a guest at Windsor Castle (for the Queen’s birthday party!), Sandringham and Balmoral.

Even if this were put down to gross naivety, nothing should excuse the fact that the Duke of York remained in touch with Epstein after he emerged from jail (the two men were pictured strolling through Central Park in New York together).

Prince Andrew has a record of misjudgments of this nature. Nobody knows, for instance, why he makes so many visits to Azerbaijan, where critics say his repeated trips are a significant propaganda resource for the country’s notorious President Ilham Aliyev. Prince Andrew has a penchant for rackety dictators. Questions still swirl around the sale of his home to the son-in-law of the President of Kazakhstan for £15 million, way above the apparent market price.

Nobody should forget that Prince Andrew is a war hero, having performed with bravery as a helicopter pilot in the Falklands. It has always been difficult as the younger son of a monarch, surrounded by hangers-on and with no real role. None the less, Just as Tony Blair has made the most of his position as ex-prime minister, Prince Andrew has managed to make the most of being the son of the Queen.

In neither case is the spectacle edifying, but there we are. The Prince is fifth in line to the throne, and mercifully drifting out fast. Prince George is his nephew. Many families (as the Duchess of Cambridge knows only too well) have dodgy uncles. One shudders to think what the tabloid press would have done if it had got its hands on Uncle Theodore in Evelyn Waugh’s Scoop, let alone Uncle Giles in Anthony Powell’s A Dance to the Music of the Time.

Fortunately, neither of them was uncle to the heir to the throne. The Queen looked far from happy yesterday as she left the church service at Sandringham. She has been through so much and served her country with such exemplary selflessness and devotion. At the age of 88, she, of all people, is entitled to take it easy. Instead, the arrogance and foolishness of her children has thrown the Royal family back into crisis.

To adapt Harold Wilson, a week is a long time in royalty, and the republicans are rubbing their hands in glee.

The Daily Telegraph

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2015/01/06/peter-oborne-the-royals-gift-to-republicans/feed/0stdRoyalsRobert Cushman: Two plays in London’s West End are metrics of monarchy and the modern presshttp://news.nationalpost.com/2014/10/31/robert-cushman-two-plays-in-londons-west-end-are-metrics-of-monarchy-and-the-modern-press/
http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/10/31/robert-cushman-two-plays-in-londons-west-end-are-metrics-of-monarchy-and-the-modern-press/#commentsFri, 31 Oct 2014 19:41:07 +0000http://arts.nationalpost.com/?p=159380

LONDON — “The historical novelist,” or so I once read, “must necessarily turn history into romance, and romance will always lie with the deposed or threatened king.” Same goes for the historical dramatist, as Shakespeare will bear witness. It goes, too, for the counter-historical dramatist, as is currently being demonstrated by Mike Bartlett, whose King Charles III is the prestige hit of London.

Or maybe Bartlett should be called a future-historical dramatist. The situation with which he presents us is that the Queen of England has just died and her son has, after a lifetime in waiting, succeeded to the throne. Immediately the new King Charles finds himself faced with a major crisis, of conscience and of state. In the wake of the recent phone-hacking scandals and of attacks on privacy generally, a bill has been passed that will effectively limit what has traditionally been regarded as the liberty of the press. All the bill needs to become law is the mere formality of the royal signature. At least, it’s always been assumed to be a formality. Charles, though, refuses to play. He takes the idea of press freedom seriously, even while admitting that he and his family have suffered from its abuse. He is also a student of history and knows that a monarch has one weapon left when facing an intransigent parliament. He can dissolve it.

Bartlett, whose best-known play in Canada is Cock, has done some clever things. He has seized on two issues on which most will have mixed feelings. One is censorship; we abhor it, and don’t want to see a government insulating itself against attacks from the media; we can still feel uneasy about some of the things those media can get away with.

The other is that strange institution known as a constitutional monarchy. Of course, we don’t want to see a democratically elected government subordinated to the whims of somebody whose position derives from mere hereditary accident. On the other hand, when we look at the antics of the elected, it’s hard not to yearn for somebody to at least knock their heads together. There’s a whole line of plays pitting king against cabinet, the elect against the elected; the most famous is Shaw’s The Apple Cart, whose King Magnus took the wind out of his opponents’ sails by threatening to abdicate and run against them. In Bartlett’s play, abdication is a threat to be used against the king. Shaw’s play is a comedy. So is Bartlett’s, and often a funny one, but it’s a comedy with the lineaments of tragedy.

It brings off this neat trick by dressing itself up stylistically as a Shakespearean chronicle play. Bartlett isn’t the most impeccable of pastiche artists, but he is sometimes eloquent and often trenchant. The style may be a stunt, but it sustains remarkably well.

King Charles III is a first-rate production by Rupert Goold

It’s a first-rate production by Rupert Goold. Tim Pigott-Smith, the official king, was sick when I attended but his understudy, Miles Richardson, was excellent. He’s the son of the late Ian Richardson, one of Britain’s best classical actors, and he seems to have inherited his father’s aquiline voice and manner, an air of being both vulnerable and aloof.

If ever a play was destined to be overtaken by events, this one is; but that’s all the more reason to enjoy it while it still seems plausibly prophetic. It should come to Canada, quick.

Like most interesting shows in the West End, it’s a transfer from a non-commercial house, the small independent Almeida. From the National Theatre, at the top of the subsidized heap, comes another state-of-the-nation play, uncompromisingly titled Great Britain. That’s about the only uncompromised thing about it. Where King Charles III alludes to the Rupert Murdoch empire hacking scandals that caused the closure of the News of the World, this play is wholly concerned with them, and tries in fact to dramatize them. The trouble is that the staged drama can hardly compete in farcical luridness with the real thing; the show strains mightily to pitifully small effect.

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It certainly has pedigree; it was staged by Nicholas Hytner, about to step down from a mostly glorious reign as the National’s artistic director, and its author is the insanely prolific Richard Bean, who wrote one of Hytner’s and the National’s most deserved successes, One Man Two Guvnors. His gagman’s touch only asserts itself in scenes involving a hapless police commissioner with gay proclivities, an Indian or maybe Pakistani accent, and a talent for inserting foot in mouth at press briefings. Otherwise all is laborious.

In Great Britain, Murdoch is now an Irishman, Rebekah Brooks is a minor character

Names in this play are changed, but where it counts identities are distinguishable. Murdoch is now an Irishman, Rebekah Brooks is a minor character, and the leading figure is a female journalist, given an unfortunate performance in which the actress seems as obnoxiously pleased with herself as the person she’s playing.

The character’s name is Kate Brittain, which should give an idea of the degree of subtlety on view here. Still, to judge from the fullness of their respective houses, while King Charles III is doing well, Great Britain is doing better. It makes you see the kebab man’s point.

NEW DELHI — India’s intelligence agency has targeted an advisor to the Prince of Wales as well as British environmental activists in a campaign against foreign groups that it claims are a threat to its economy.

The Indian government last week banned direct foreign funding of local campaign groups after a report by its Intelligence Bureau cautioning that organizations funded by Greenpeace and other international institutions were growing throughout the country and “spawning” mass movements that would pose a “significant threat to national economic security”.

The decision was disclosed after the Indian government indicated it was ready to exploit further its large coal reserves and asserted its right to increase carbon emissions for economic development.

India was the world’s fastest growing carbon gas emitter in 2012, but has rejected calls to reduce emissions as unfair. Its ministers say Western economies were to blame for polluting the atmosphere during their industrialization and that India’s own development cannot be held back to meet new targets.

Prakash Javadekar, the environment minister, said India had a “right to grow” and that it could not address climate change until it had eradicated poverty.

According to the Intelligence Bureau report, Greenpeace and other environmentalist groups have stalled the development of new coal mines, challenged its plans for more coal-fired power stations, and delayed other vital infrastructure projects in campaigns which had reduced India’s GDP growth by up to 3?per cent.

Much of their work, the report said, has been funded by the US-based Centre for Media and Democracy, which it described as a Democratic Party-oriented group supported by liberals like George Soros and “multiple far-Left foundations”.

The report, which was leaked last week, singled out Dr. Vandana Shiva, an Indian scientist who advises Prince Charles on sustainable agriculture.

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She has been his long-term collaborator on organic farming since they participated in the Reith Lectures in 2000. He is said to find her inspiring and keeps a bust of her at his Highgrove home.

During his visit to India last November, the Prince visited her organic farm in Dehra Dun to highlight her campaign against the use of genetically modified seeds. Dr Shiva has blamed the high cost of GM cotton seeds for the suicides of 284,000 indebted farmers since 1995.

According to the Intelligence Bureau report, “six NGOs, including Greenpeace, are at the forefront of anti-GMO activism in India” and the movement “was initiated in 2003 by Vandana Shiva”. It also emphasises her role as a consultant to Greenpeace Australia and her group, Navdanya, as a recipient of foreign aid.

Other “anti-developmental activities” highlighted in the report included Greenpeace plans for “crop circle” protests against the cultivation of genetically modified soya and corn. The group had planned to capture the demonstrations on Google Earth, the report said.

The report named four Britons among 12 foreign activists that it said were planning to organise protests against coal-fired power stations and had been involved in upgrading Greenpeace India’s computer security systems. It discussed the work of Matt Philips, a British energy analyst, and cited a claim by Pakistan’s former intelligence chief that Mr Philips’s previous employer, Save the Children, was linked to the CIA.

AP Photo/Altaf Qadri, FileFILE - In this Saturday, Nov. 16, 2013 file photo, a Greenpeace activist jumps to catch a thread tied to balloons during a protest against the imprisonment of the group's activists and freelance journalists in New Delhi, India.

Two other British activists, Fiona Stewart and Emma Gibson, had visited Greenpeace’s headquarters in Bangalore in January and “upgraded its communications systems and installed sophisticated and encrypted software in its computers”, the report said.
Dr. Vandana Shiva called the report an “attack on civil society”, which she said she would defend. She said it was “biased” in favour of the foreign companies that she blames for farmers’ debts and suicides. “They’re not allergic to foreign funding for defence or railways but only foreign funding to build civil society”, she said.

Greenpeace India said the report was a “malicious” attempt to speed up environmental clearances for coal and nuclear power projects and a “concerted effort by parties with a vested interest to ensure elimination of any opposition”.

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/06/23/indias-intelligence-agency-targets-prince-charles-advisor-in-a-war-on-green-groups/feed/15stdPrince Charles, Prince of Wales and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall attend day one of Royal Ascot at Ascot Racecourse on June 17, 2014 in Ascot, England.AP Photo/Altaf Qadri, FileSondra Gotlieb: We'll never be royals (but we have met a few in our time)http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/06/07/sondra-gotlieb-well-never-be-royals-but-we-have-met-a-few-in-our-time/
http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/06/07/sondra-gotlieb-well-never-be-royals-but-we-have-met-a-few-in-our-time/#commentsSat, 07 Jun 2014 12:30:20 +0000http://life.nationalpost.com/?p=138784

Last month we went to Winnipeg, where my husband Allan received an honour from the province and shook hands with Prince Charles. I’m slightly royalist, which means that I prefer to see pictures of The Queen than aging movie stars. I’d rather have the glamour of the royal family as long as they don’t mix their blue blood with the likes of my own. Perhaps that’s what the Queen had in mind when she was determined to see Charles marry Diana, who was the genuine thing, unlike Kate. Times have really changed. Camilla comes from aristocracy, but I believe she was previously married to somebody else. Those in the know tell me that she married because Charles was having a hard time making up his mind. Camilla’s grandmother, Mrs. Keppel, was at King Edward’s deathbed because he loved her and Queen Alexandra reluctantly allowed it.

Before the honouring of Allan in Winnipeg, the last time I saw the Prince of Wales was in Washington, D.C., during the 1980s and he was with the gorgeous Diana. At a big social event, when Diana walked by in a blue velvet gown, the cameras were all up and the press guys were slavering. When the prince walked by the cameras went down and the press were not interested. This would cause envious feelings in many marriages. Diana, with her beauty and magnetic and easy manner with the public, did nothing to help their relationship. He was the heir to the throne, after all. Those in the know at the time told me this was the last time they were going to be seen in public together. One could not help notice that as they sat at the same round table at dinner they deliberately looked away from the other.

This time in Winnipeg, Camilla and the Prince sat together and chatted amiably with each other while the recipients of the Order of Manitoba were waiting to be pinned. The scene was very different from Washington. That’s all I know about Prince Charles. But I do blame the lady who told the press that Prince Charles thought Putin was like Hitler, if that’s how it came out. If you have any little secret confidences from the royal family just tell your friends.

Maybe belonging to royalty is not such a terrific thing. When I was very young I saw Grace Kelly walking on Madison Avenue before she married that Prince from Monaco. Perhaps I wouldn’t have noticed her but everyone walking ahead of me was whispering, despite the supposed sophistication of New Yorkers. I kept my head up and caught a glimpse of one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever seen. Certainly in terms of purity of feature she beat out Princess Diana, if not in charisma. Princess Diana looked back at you with warmth. Grace, even then, was sick of public stares.

We were posted to the UN in Geneva in the early ’60s and the government allowed our family to stay at the rather grand Hotel de la Paix until we found an apartment — they were rare in those days. What I didn’t know was that our home for two months was the place Monaco royalty traditionally hung out in Geneva. And there we sat with a one-year-old and a two-year-old every evening at 6 p.m. when the dining room opened. We were always seated next to Princess Grace’s table. She dined alone there every evening at that hour. Poor Princess Grace, why was she sitting there in that noisy spot, near the young Gotliebs? She came from a heavenly constellation and had no business with the likes of us. She looked sad, lonely and not as beautiful as when I last saw her on the streets of New York. But she still was very special. I never saw a woman eating alone with so much dignity. Especially one so famous.

I have met The Queen twice, once when she summoned us specially to ask Allan an indiscreet (for The Queen) question. I won’t disclose what she said because I am not quite as bad as the lady who told the press what Charles said about Putin.

An 89-year-old D-Day veteran wound the clock back 70 years Thursday by parachuting into the same field in which he landed during the Normandy invasion.

Jock Hutton said it was “no problem” to jump from 1,500 metres strapped to a member of the Red Devils parachute display team, landing less than ten metres from the watching Prince of Wales.

LEON NEAL/AFP/Getty ImagesBritish Second World War veteran Jock Hutton, 89, poses following his landing after he and teams of French, US, Canadian and British paratroopers jumped from airplanes during a D-Day commemoration in Ranville, northern France, on June 5, 2014.

After brushing himself down and putting on his Parachute Regiment beret to go with his borrowed Red Devils jumpsuit, he joked: “At my age, life tends to get a little bit boring, so you’ve got to grab any chance of excitement you can.” Asked if he had found the experience frightening, he said: “Once I stuck my head out the door and I got a heave from the back I was away.

“During my lifetime I have never been terrified. I’m just a vicious little Scotsman.”

Told that he and his tandem jump partner, Colour Sergeant Billy Blanchard, had landed closer to the “X” target marker than several of the young, full-time Red Devils, Mr. Hutton said with a twinkle in his eye: “Aye, that’s experience.”

However, a career in parachuting – all those jarring encounters with the ground – has taken its toll.

“The doctor said to me, ‘You haven’t got a tailbone any more, Mr. Hutton. It’s gone up so far it’s now your collar bone,” he laughs.

Mr. Hutton, from Bridge of Weir, near Glasgow, was a 19-year old when he jumped into the same field on the outskirts of Ranville, which his regiment had been ordered to take on June 6, 1944. “It was dark, obviously, raining slightly and the moon was bursting out of the clouds, so I had quite a cushy jump,” he recalled.

“My memories are only of getting to our target. Our first task was to clear the drop zone of poles that had been put in the ground [to prevent aircraft landing]. Fortunately they had been a wee bit idle and left them loose, so they were quite easy to get out.”

Mr. Hutton, one of the last survivors of his regiment’s jump on D-Day, joined the Black Watch in 1939 before transferring to 13 Bn, The Parachute Regiment. He said: “We were jammed in and really it was a bloody pleasure to get out of the aircraft after the discomfort and so on.

“It was a wee bit difficult in the dark, moving around, trying to speak quietly, and meantime there’s machine guns blasting. The 13th Bn was a highly jacked-up unit. We were extremely fit. We were all young and we were full of fight.”

On Thursday, Mr. Hutton, who was brought up in an orphanage, jumped from 10 times the height he did on D-Day when he leapt from just 150 metres. After chatting to Prince Charles, Mr. Hutton spotted an old comrade, 89-year-old Bert Marsh, whom he got to know around 10 years ago through commemoration events.

“Bertie you old beast, I thought you were deed!” said Mr. Hutton in his Scottish accent. Mr. Marsh replied: “You’re a jammy devil, Jock!”

The two men then watched almost 300 British, French, American and Canadian paratroopers jumping from Hercules transporter aircraft to recreate the scene on D-Day.

Only this time they were landing in a country whose freedom and peace were won by Mr. Hutton and his brothers-in-arms.

Mr. Hutton was born in Stirling in 1924, and was four when his father, a soldier in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, disappeared on a seven-year foreign posting.

“My mother couldn’t handle my older brother and me alone, and I think she escaped to Canada,” he says. “My father divorced her some time later but when and how I do not know.”

AP Photo/Thomas BregardisBritish Second World War veteran Jock Hutton, centre, 89, stands following his landing after he and teams of French, US, Canadian and British paratroopers jumped from airplanes during a D-Day commemoration in Ranville, western France, Thursday, June 5, 2014.

Young John and his older brother William were sent to live with their grandmother, who soon died. “So off we went to the orphanage. It was a deeply religious place. The welcome was having your hair shaved off while in a bath with three other children.

“I wasn’t very bright at school and the teachers had no time for you if they considered you backward. So it was a miserable 11 years, reading the Bible three times a day and going to church twice on a Sunday. There was a leather belt for corporal punishment. I was given the same halfpenny to put in the collection for 11 years.”

One institution followed another. Mr. Hutton’s father had decreed that his son should enter the Army as a boy soldier. He joined the Black Watch in July 1939 just shy of 15. “It was purgatory,” he says. “It drove me mad to the point where I considered going absent without leave. It was continual fatigues -peeling spuds.”

He was desperate for some action. The new airborne forces promised adventure and in 1943 he was accepted for parachute training at Ringway near Manchester. Normandy was his first taste of action. The tension rose in the days before June 6.

“It was fairly obvious that it was coming,” he remembers. “Everyone was gearing up. There was apprehension but we were young and bursting to go.”

He found himself in the cramped belly of a converted Albemarle bomber with eight other men. The black hole cut in the floor offered escape from its confines and he was glad to jump.

LEON NEAL/AFP/Getty ImagesBritain's Prince Charles, right, speaks with Second World War veteran Jock Hutton, 89, after Hutton and teams of French, US, Canadian and British paratroopers jumped from airplanes during a D-Day commemoration in Rainville, northern France, on June 5, 2014.

Most of the 13th Battalion landed on target near the Orne river and its adjacent canal, barriers guarding the eastern flank of the Allied invasion. The 6th Airborne was charged with seizing or destroying bridges to prevent a German counter-thrust against the amphibious forces landing at dawn.

“We thought we could handle anything – we were all jacked up,” he remembers. “I must say that I felt in command of the situation. On landing, I thought, ‘This is great.’”

“The battalion Commanding Officer had a good idea and took his hunting horn with him to signal where we should gather. You could hear it above the sound of the battle.”

Two and a half weeks later, Mr. Hutton, a member of a mortar team, was wounded in the stomach by shrapnel and evacuated to a hospital near Stoke.

“A week later this man in uniform walked into the ward and said to the Gordon Highlander in the bed next to me, ‘Is there a laddie in here called Hutton?’ I said, ‘Yeah that’s me.’ He said, ‘Well, I’m your father.’ He had received a note saying I was severely wounded and assumed I was about to die.”

The two would not meet again for a decade.

The doctors decided it was too risky to cut out the inch of metal embedded in Mr. Hutton’s abdomen.

“To this day I can still feel it,” he says. “It comes to the surface and then goes away. I’ve had it for 70 years. My wee friend!” Mr. Hutton is a grandfather now. His wife Doreen, his support during an eventful post-war life in special forces, watched his descent on television from the family home in Kent.

“All my friends are dead now,” says Mr. Hutton. “We would go to gatherings together but now I’m on my own. But I’m happy. I’ve been lucky. I’ve had a different life.”

Different indeed.

Chris Jackson/Getty Images89-year-old D-Day Veteran Jock Hutton who jumped Thursday just outside Rainville during D-Day 70 Commemorations on June 5, 2014 in Ranville, France. Friday 6th June is the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings which saw 156,000 troops from the allied countries including the United Kingdom and the United States join forces to launch an audacious attack on the beaches of Normandy, these assaults are credited with the eventual defeat of Nazi Germany. A series of events commemorating the 70th anniversary are planned for the week with many heads of state travelling to the famous beaches to pay their respects to those who lost their lives.

Each week the National Post imagines the life of one notable newsmaker. This week, Prince Charles as imagined by Tristin Hopper

Monday

Here we go, my 17th visit to the Dominion of Canada, my third since marrying Camilla and my fourth overall visit to Nova Scotia — or is it the fifth? It will also be the fifth [sixth?] time I meet the Prime Minister … provided it’s still the same one. It was tricky visiting Canada for a while: You’d get off the plane, and wouldn’t know if you were going to be met by the fat one, the one with the accent or that one who always looked terrified. And it’s not like it’s any easier visiting Australia. On the schedule, though, I’ve got my 2,134th inspection of a military honour guard, my 912th visit to a farmer’s market and my 1,384th commemorative tree planting. An interesting note: This tree planting will be the 318th time I plant an oak.

Tuesday

For tonight’s entertainment, Prince Edward Island organizers saw fit to entertain their future king by wheeling out a portly man in drag to deliver a comic portrayal of my mother. You know, few people realize that I am raised to believe that I am ordained by God to be king of these lands. My whole life I have prepared to one day take the same oath as my mother, and devote every atom of my being to a duty I believe comes directly from divine providence. We don’t see ourselves as ceremonial figureheads, we Windsors believe ourselves to be sacred guardians bound by blood to our God, to 1000 years of unbroken succession and to the very peoples who right now surround me in Charlottetown, P.E.I. … anyways, it is times like these when I feel it prudent to keep quiet about all that.

All in all, we met sailors dressed as giant fruit, watched a bunch of children pretend to be parliamentarians and met a young redhead pretending to be a character from some dime novel whose name escapes me. I also met a bear. Sometimes, I wonder if this is all just a joke. The other day, I found myself reading a Philip K. Dick paperback in the royal library, and the thought suddenly struck me: What if I was born a commoner, but in my teen years I received artificial memory implants to make myself believe I was royalty? And then, ever since, I’ve been the delusional main character of some cruel Truman Show-type project. It would certainly make more sense.

Gary Clement/National Post

Thursday

I seem to have gotten the Russians all riled by comparing their president to Adolph Hitler. Well, it’s good to know that Russia took some time out of conquering border nations to worry about what foreign royalty is telling old Canadian ladies. I’m just glad the rest of the Canadians I talked to had the sense to keep quiet. I told one old Winnipegger that Margaret Thatcher was a man, Winston Churchill was a robot and that Wales doesn’t exist. To an old woman in Halifax, I just leaned in close and whispered “My real father was Pope Pius XII.” I am only human, after all: These things get tedious if you don’t find a way to spice them up.

Friday

I had a dream I was a ship: A luxurious, four-funnelled, trans-Atlantic ocean liner. They nickname me “The Atlantic Conqueror,” and I spent my days gloriously shuttling people and cargo between the Old World and the New. But then the jet airplane was invented, and my original purpose was now obsolete. But instead of sending me to the scrapyard, my owners kept me afloat as a “cruise ship”: A vessel that still treats passengers to the flashy delights of shipboard travel, but serves no real useful purpose. It was … humiliating, but fortunately I was soon shaken awake by Clarence House staff. I had to attend an early morning rededication of the Memorial Birdbath at the Overton Branch of the Royal British Legion.

National Post

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/05/23/prince-charles-dear-diary-these-people-realize-i-was-ordained-by-god-to-rule-these-lands-right/feed/1stdRoyal Tour 20140521 TOPIXGary Clement/National PostThe Week in Wit: Is Wade Lynch the jester we deserve? Or is there someone better to make the royals squirm?http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/05/23/the-week-in-wit-is-wade-lynch-really-the-jester-we-deserve-or-is-there-someone-better-to-make-the-royals-squirm/
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This week, Canada finally found its Stephen Colbert. He wasn’t afraid to speak truth to power, accept cringes in place of laughs, and get so deep into his impersonation that it was hard to tell where the character ended and the comedian began.

Sadly, Wade Lynch isn’t actually funny. At least, the act he put on for Prince Charles and Camilla on Monday night in Prince Edward Island — in which the dinner-theatre comedian dressed as The Queen — wasn’t: YouTube clips prove that. And you don’t need to be a strict Freudian to guess that no audience member will enjoy seeing his mother impersonated by a self-described “chubby man in a dress.”

“I stand by this man, because he stands for things,” Colbert said then to the teeth-gritting Commander-in-Chief. “Not only for things, he stands on things, things like aircraft carriers and rubble and recently flooded city squares.”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKnkWx4kHq4&w=620&h=379]

That’s a rapier compared to the Nerf ball of “There are two members of the audience who call me by quite another name and that is of course, ‘Mommie.’ Hello, kids,” though Lynch still managed to make Camilla look even more uncomfortable than usual.

In a perfect world, Wade Lynch would go on to become Canada’s Neil Hamburger, the fake standup played by Gregg Turkington who alienates audiences with his ugly self-hatred. And we would formally bring back the court jester, the licensed fools who once entertained and insulted the crown heads of Europe. The job, as Samuel Pepys put it, entailed being able to “with privilege revile or jeere any body, the greatest person, without offence, by the privilege of his place.”

We have a Parliamentary poet laureate; the City of Toronto just created the vague and unpaid position of photo laureate. Why not appoint someone (other than Wade Lynch) to accompany all royal visits as Canadian court jester? If we’re going to persist with a foreign head of state and an outdated system of government, we may as well get some jokes out of it.

Russian officials have condemned Prince Charles’ “outrageous” comments after he reportedly compared President Vladimir Putin to Adolf Hitler during his royal visit to Canada.

The Russian Embassy in London Thursday said the Russian government wants official clarification about comments attributed to Charles during a stop in Halifax.

“We are seeking clarification [from the FCO] at a working level. It’s not clear if it is an official position. The response from Clarence House is it was a private talk,” a senior Russian diplomatic source told The Telegraph.

“We hope there is nothing behind it. But it is unclear to us: what does it mean? He is the future king, after all.”

Russian officials say a senior minister at the embassy in London will meet with Foreign Office officials later Thursday to discuss the issue.

British media reported Wednesday that Charles compared Putin to the Nazi leader in what he thought was a private conversation with a volunteer worker at the Museum of Immigration in Halifax.

Marienne Ferguson reportedly told Charles that her Jewish family fled to Canada from Poland when she was 13, but that other relatives failed to flee before the German army arrived in Gdansk in 1939. Charles then reportedly said to her: “And now Putin is doing just about the same as Hitler.”

Charles’ representatives have not confirmed the comments, which have drawn wide attention in Britain.

A spokeswoman for Clarence House, the residence of Prince Charles, said Wednesday, “We don’t comment on private conversations.“

“We do like to stress that the Prince of Wales wouldn’t seek to make a political statement during a private conversation,” she added.

Moscow reportedly considers the comparison between Putin and Hitler to be very offensive as 20 million Russians died during the Second World War.

“It is very serious,” a senior Russian diplomatic source told The Telegraph. “Every family in our country lost someone in that war.”

The Russian daily newspaper Moskovskij Komsomolets said the incident could “trigger an international scandal.”

As a constitutional monarch, Charles’s mother, Queen Elizabeth II, is supposed to remain above politics. Now that the queen, who at 88 has served 62 years on the throne, is taking on fewer duties, the prince is taking on more.

Charles’ comments have drawn some criticism from British politicians who say the royal family should avoid making political statements.

“In a constitutional monarchy, policy and diplomacy should be conducted by Parliament and Government,” Labour MP Mike Gapes told The Telegraph. “Monarchy should be seen and not heard.”

However, he was defended by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and opposition leader Ed Miliband. Prime Minister David Cameron refused to comment.

“I have never been of the view that if you are a member of the Royal family somehow you have to enter into some sort of Trappist vow of silence. I think he is entitled to his views,” Clegg told BBC Breakfast.

Prince Charles and Putin are scheduled to meet on June 6 for the commemorations of the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy.

AP Photo/Tim Ockenden/PA, FileThis is a June 26, 2003 file photo of Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, as he shares a limousine with Britain's Prince Charles in London, during a visit to Britain by Putin. A Canadian woman has told a British reporter that Prince Charles compared Russian President Vladimir Putin's actions in Ukraine to those of Adolf Hitler. The Daily Mail reported Wednesday May 21, 2014, that the heir to the British throne made the comments in Halifax to Marienne Ferguson, whose family fled Poland before it was invaded by the Nazis in 1939.

Related

Charles used tongs to offer fish to the two-year-old Hudson, who happily gobbled up the treat.

The prince remarked on the size of Hudson’s paws and a zookeeper explained how polar bears in the wild can pull prey from the water with one swipe.

While Charles was sharing face time with a bear, Camilla visited the Royal Winnipeg Ballet with Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s wife, Laureen.

Chris Jackson/Getty ImagesCamilla, Duchess of Cornwall and Prince Charles, Prince of Wales throw paper aeroplanes with the Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper at Stevenson Campus Air Hangar on May 21, 2014 in Winnipeg

The Duchess of Cornwall, wearing a silver-blue dress and coat, toured the wardrobe and costume department, where she called the costumes “works of art.”

“Look at all the shoes,” she commented as she examined the ballet footwear.

Wardrobe director Alena Zharska explained how the costumes are put together and showed Camilla a pattern for a tutu.

EPA / John Stillwell / PA And they're off (the planes, that is)

“How long does this take to make?” asked the duchess.

“Usually 50 to 60 hours,” Zharska explained.

The duchess attended a ballet class for those with physical and developmental disabilities, watched a pas de deux and unveiled a coin designed by the Royal Canadian Mint in honour of the ballet’s 75th anniversary.
Hudson was not the only bear to make his way onto the royal agenda.

David Lipnowski / The Canadian PressLaureen Harper applauds as Prince Charles accepts flight jacket as a gift for his grandson Prince George

Charles and Camilla toured a small gallery of artwork, books and other materials connected to Winnie, a black bear named after Winnipeg and who inspired the Winnie the Pooh stories by children’s author A.A. Milne

The couple looked at an oil painting from 1930 by Ernest Shepard of the bear staring into a honey pot and saw a photo of the original bear as well.

“They’re so familiar,” Charles said to Camilla.

AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Paul ChiassonTrying on Google Glass

The day began at the Red River College’s Stevenson aircraft hangar, where the royal couple joined the Harpers.

Chris Jackson / Getty ImagesCharles admires the gift

Charles and Camilla took turns throwing paper airplanes folded by children and were presented with a tiny aviator’s jacket for their grandson, Prince George.

In a speech, Charles observed that things are different in the province from when he last visited in 1996, but one thing remains the same.

“What has most assuredly not changed is the vitality of this province and the optimism for Canada’s future,” he said.

A pilot in the air force in his younger years, the prince paid tribute to those who can fix planes.

“I have a very determined admiration — respect — for those marvellous engineers who can actually take these things apart and put them back together again, usually after a pilot had broken them or done something awful to them.”

Paul Chiasson / The Canadian PressPrince Charles and his wife Camilla are greeted at the Pooh Gallery, which houses a collection of Winnie the Pooh artifacts and memorabilia including the first painting of Winnie the Pooh by E.H. Shepherd, in Winnipeg on Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Charles did not mention remarks he reportedly made earlier in the trip comparing Russian president Vladimir Putin’s actions in Ukraine to Adolf Hitler.

Britain’s Daily Mail said Charles made the comment during a visit to the Canadian Museum of Immigration in Halifax.

The newspaper quoted museum volunteer Marienne Ferguson, who said her Jewish family fled to Canada from Poland as the German army approached ahead of the Second World War.

Paul Chiasson / The Canadian PressPrince Charles and his wife Camilla are presented with a stuffed bear dressed in the digital camouflage pattern worn by Canadian Forces at Assiniboine Park Zoo in Winnipeg on Wednesday, May 21, 2014

It quoted Ferguson as saying she told Charles about her family background and that the prince then said to her: “And now Putin is doing just about the same as Hitler.”

The Canadian Press could not reach Ferguson for comment.

Earlier, Charles and Camilla had an uncomfortable moment in Prince Edward Island as the pair were “treated” to a comic impersonation of the Queen, played by local actor Wade Lynch, at an event Monday night.

The prince was to speak at the legislature Wednesday evening at an Order of Manitoba investiture held just before a farewell ceremony for him and his wife.

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/05/21/prince-charles-plays-waiter-to-a-polar-bear-throws-paper-planes-with-prime-minister-harper-as-tour-wraps-up/feed/0galleryPrince Charles, Prince of Wales feeds a polar bear called Hudson as he visits Winnipeg Zoo on May 21, 2014Chris Jackson / Getty ImagesChris Jackson / Getty ImagesChris Jackson/Getty ImagesEPA / John Stillwell / PA David Lipnowski / The Canadian PressAP Photo/The Canadian Press, Paul ChiassonChris Jackson / Getty ImagesPaul Chiasson / The Canadian PressPaul Chiasson / The Canadian PressPrince Charles likens Putin to Hitler during stop in Halifax: reportshttp://news.nationalpost.com/2014/05/21/prince-charles-likens-putin-to-hitler-during-stop-in-halifax-reports/
http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/05/21/prince-charles-likens-putin-to-hitler-during-stop-in-halifax-reports/#commentsWed, 21 May 2014 12:45:52 +0000National Post Staff]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=468453Daily Mail for what the tabloid reported was a remark in which Prince Charles likened Russian President Vladimir Putin to Adolf Hitler when talking to a woman who lost relatives in the Holocaust.]]>

HALIFAX — The royal visit to Canada has made headlines in Britain’s Daily Mail for what the tabloid reported was a remark in which Prince Charles likened Russian President Vladimir Putin to Adolf Hitler when talking to a woman who lost relatives in the Holocaust.

The Daily Mail says Charles made the comment during a visit Monday to the Canadian Museum of Immigration in Halifax.

The newspaper reports museum volunteer Marienne Ferguson as saying her Jewish family fled to Canada from Poland when she was 13, but that other relatives failed to flee before the German army arrived in Gdansk in 1939.

It quotes Ferguson as saying she told Charles about her family background and how she came to Canada, and that Charles then said to her: “And now Putin is doing just about the same as Hitler.”

The Canadian Press could not immediately reach Ferguson for comment about the report.

A spokeswoman for Clarence House, the residence of Prince Charles, told the news agency early Wednesday, “We don‘t comment on private conversations.“

“We do like to stress that the Prince of Wales wouldn’t seek to make a political statement during a private conversation,“ the spokeswoman added.

Ferguson later told the BBC it was “just a little remark. I didn’t think it was going to make such a big uproar.”

“I must say that I agree with him and am sure a lot of people do. I was very surprised that he made the comment as I know they [members of the Royal Family] aren’t meant to say these things but it was very heartfelt and honest,” Ferguson told the Daily Mail.

President Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov told the BBC they were “not commenting right now.”

Tensions have grown between Putin and the West since Russia’s annexation of Crimea earlier this year.

Charles is scheduled to wrap up his trip to Canada on Wednesday in Winnipeg.

But his reported comments have caused a media storm in Britain, where Charles has sometimes been accused of compromising the Royal Family’s political neutrality with his strong views on topics including education, architecture and the environment.

Labour party legislator Mike Gapes tweeted that in a constitutional democracy, “monarchy should be seen and not heard.”

AP Photo/Tim Ockenden/PA, FileThis is a June 26, 2003 file photo of Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, as he shares a limousine with Britain's Prince Charles in London, during a visit to Britain by Putin. A Canadian woman has told a British reporter that Prince Charles compared Russian President Vladimir Putin's actions in Ukraine to those of Adolf Hitler. The Daily Mail reported Wednesday May 21, 2014, that the heir to the British throne made the comments in Halifax to Marienne Ferguson, whose family fled Poland before it was invaded by the Nazis in 1939.

But Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said the prince was “free to express himself.”

“I have never been of this view that if you are a member of the Royal Family somehow you have to enter into some Trappist vow of silence,” Clegg told the BBC.

But Peter Hunt, the BBC’s esteemed royal correspondent, says the comment has “significant ramifications.”

“The British monarchy is in a period of subtle transition. Prince Charles is, slowly, taking on more of his 88-year-old mother’s workload. As a result, there’s a renewed focus on the type of king he will become,” Hunt wrote.

On June 6 Charles is due to join his mother the Queen and leaders of the Second World War Allies — including Putin — at events in France to mark the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings.

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/05/21/prince-charles-likens-putin-to-hitler-during-stop-in-halifax-reports/feed/3stdPrince Charles shields himself from the rain in Cornwall, P.E.I. on Tuesday, May 20, 2014.AP Photo/Tim Ockenden/PA, FileP.E.I. 'treats' Prince Charles to cross-dressing impersonation of the Queen, which is exactly as awkward as you would expecthttp://news.nationalpost.com/2014/05/20/p-e-i-treats-prince-charles-to-cross-dressing-impersonation-of-the-queen-which-is-exactly-as-awkward-as-you-would-expect/
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By the look on Prince Charles and his wife Camilla’s face, you could say it was a royal embarrassment.

Despite his best stiff upper lip, Prince Charles’s discomfort was palpable as Prince Edward Island treated him to a comic impersonation of the Queen, played by local actor Wade Lynch, at an event Monday night.

“There are two members of the audience who call me by quite another name and that is of course, ‘Mommie.’ Hello, kids,” Lynch, as the Queen, said. “As the mother of a Prince Edward — ha ha! — I could not be more tickled.”

The “Queen” then introduced “Anne Shirley,” which surely helped make the evening one potato short of P.E.I. bingo.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKnkWx4kHq4&w=620&h=349]

Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, looked positively aghast throughout the performance.

Minister of National Revenue Gail Shea, who represents P.E.I’s Egmont riding, laughed and smiled warmly at Lynch’s G-rated jokes, while P.E.I. Premier Robert Ghiz looked on rather uncomfortably. Ghiz’s wife, Dr. Kate Ellis, wore a grim expression that she could deliver bad news to a patient with.

In a previous article in the paper, Lynch expressed worry about performing before the Royals as the Queen.

“Even though the humour is gentle when I appear as the Queen, some people believe you are not supposed to mock the royals,” he said.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul ChiassonPrince Charles and his wife Camilla share a laugh with actress Katie Kerr portraying Anne of Green Gables in Charlottetown, P.E.I. on Tuesday, May 20, 2014.

In less awkward news, Prince Charles said the birth of his grandson, Prince George, made it more apparent to him that it is important to see the link between the world’s challenges and the environment.

“They all … rest on the nexus of water, energy and food security and finding common purpose in meeting our common needs,” he said in a speech Tuesday.

“These are environmental, economic and social issues all tied together. In other words, the health of nature’s life support systems, which are now under such threat, has a direct bearing upon the health and well-being of people.”

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul ChiassonPrince Charles, right, and his wife Camilla sign the Province House Guest Book in the Confederation Chamber at Province House in Charlottetown, P.E.I. on Tuesday, May 20, 2014.

“I have longed tried to draw attention to this connection but it has come into even sharper focus now that I am a grandfather,” he added.

“It is all our grandchildren who will have to live with the very serious consequences of us believing today that we can simply carry on with business as usual as if nothing has changed.”

Prince Charles also visited the woodwork department at the centre for applied science and technology at Holland College, where he hammered a peg with a giant mallet.

With files from The Canadian Press

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For the third time since he married Camilla Bowles — and the 17th since his 1948 birth — Charles, the Prince of Wales and Heir Apparent to Queen Elizabeth II, is making an official tour of Canada. The Prince and the Duchess of Cornwall’s four-day tour, which began on Monday and has been described as “whirlwind” by some Canadian media, is unique in that it will be sticking exclusively to places that are normally overlooked by foreign dignitaries: Halifax and Pictou County, N.S., Charlottetown and Winnipeg. The Post‘s Tristin Hopper compiled these highlights.

Prince “enjoys always seeing Canadians everywhere.”

John Stillwell / EPACharles, Prince of Wales and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, study a wood carving of a ship's figure head, during a visit to the Hector Quay Museum in Pictou county, Nova Scotia, Canada, May 19, 2014, during the 2nd day of the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall's visit to Canada. The Royal couple are on the first leg of a four-day tour that will take them through Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Manitoba.

John Stillwell - Pool/Getty ImagesPrince Charles meets volunteers dressed as a banana, Matthew Hunt, and carrot, John Marc Morel, during a visit to Military Families Resource Centre on May 19, 2014 in Halifax, Canada.

John Stillwell / EPACamilla, The Duchess of Cornwall talks to a woman wearing a bunch of grapes suit during the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall visit to a Military Families Resource Centre in Halifax Nova Scotia, Canada, May 19, 2014.

Chris Jackson / EPACupcakes featuring cartoons of Prince Charles, The Prince of Wales, are seen during her visit to the Seaport Farmer's Market in Halifax, Canada, May 19, 2014, during the 2nd day of the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall's visit to Canada.

Before departing, Charles sat down for a fireside chat with the CBC’s George Stroumboloupoulos at Clarence House, his London estate. Wearing a double-breasted suit and white carnation, he told his disheveled interviewer that “I feel a great interest in everything that’s going on in Canada” and “enjoy always seeing Canadians everywhere.” He also praised both of his children, who have recently been engaged in similar visits to faraway realms, saying “they’re terrific … they rush about doing every kind of thing.”

Duchess sports Nova Scotia tartan

Appropriately for a man whose background is sometimes described as “tweedy,” Prince Charles is one of the world’s most vocal boosters of wool. His Campaign for Wool, launched in 2010, touts itself as a “global endeavour” devoted to promoting the “unique, natural and sustainable benefits offered by wool.” Fittingly, when the Duchess of Cornwall arrived in Halifax, she was sporting an outfit fringed with Nova Scotia tartan.

Greeted by puppet, sailor dressed as banana

As per the Royals’ own press office, the Canadian visit would emphasize “Remembrance and supporting current members of the Armed Forces.” This included a wreath-laying at a Halifax cenotaph, meetings with war brides and Second World War veterans and a Monday visit to Halifax’s Military Family Resource Centre. There, Camilla shook hands with a puppet used to encourage children to discuss their parents’ long overseas absences. The Prince met Ordinary Seaman Matthew Hunt, a volunteer who was dressed as a banana to promote healthy eating. O.S. Hunt said he did not hesitate to don the peculiar outfit when asked.

Charles knocks ruddy Americans

Speaking to a Halifax crowd, Charles reminisced about a time in 1972 when he was serving in the Royal Navy and was forced to make an unscheduled stop in the Nova Scotia capital due to his vessel becoming entangled in a fishing net. “An American net, of course,” he said.

Prince and Governor-General agree

In a private Halifax chat, Governor-General David Johnston and the Prince of Wales agreed that Canada is pretty great. As per a Tweeted message posted by Mr. Johnston soon after their Sunday meeting, “we discussed our deep affection for our country.”

Charles now member of Queen’s Privy Council

Although he is presumed to be the next King of Canada, Canada still felt the need to induct Charles into the Queen’s Privy Council, a largely ceremonial body that technically exists to advise Charles’ own mother. In practice, Privy Council membership is mandatory for anybody attending a federal cabinet meeting, but the honour is also open to anyone the Prime Minister deems fit. Prince Charles now joins such well-known figures as Winston Churchill, Maurice “Rocket” Richard and his father, the Duke of Edinburgh.

Royals to see l’il parliament

The 27-member Prince Edward Island legislature has just wrapped up its spring session, but on Tuesday Charles and Camilla are still scheduled to drop by Canada’a second-oldest active legislature (after Nova Scotia) to witness a debate of the youth parliament. As part of what is presumably a mandatory P.E.I. custom, the couple will also be toured around for part of the day by an actress playing Anne of Green Gables.

Charles to feed bear

Although the Province of Manitoba is normally opposed to humans feeding bears, Prince Charles will do just that on his Wednesday jaunt through Winnipeg. While Camilla visits the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Charles will go to the Assiniboine Park Zoo to meet, and reportedly feed, Hudson the polar bear. The couple’s visit to Winnipeg will also feature another bear-themed event: a visit to the Winnie the Pooh Gallery at the city’s Pavilion Gallery Museum.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul ChiassonPrince Charles is presented with a toy moose by a member of the RCMP in Pictou, N.S., on Monday, May 19, 2014. The Royal couple are on a four-day tour of Canada.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul ChiassonPrince Charles is presented with a toy moose by a member of the RCMP as his wife Camilla looks on in Pictou, Nova Scotia on Monday, May 19, 2014. The Royal couple are on a four-day tour of Canada.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul ChiassonThe Duchess of Cornwall shakes hands with a puppet while touring a military family centre Monday, May 19, 2014 in Halifax. The Royal couple are on a four-day tour of Canada.

Chris Jackson / EPAPrince Charles meets a man with a duck as he visits Seaport Farmer's Market in Halifax, Canada, May 19, 2014.

John Stillwell / EPACharles, Prince of Wales, meets people in the crowd during a visit to the Hector Quay Museum in Pictou county, Nova Scotia, Canada, May 19, 2014.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew VaughanPrince Charles and his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, chat with Justice Minister Peter MacKay at the Grand Parade in Halifax on Monday, May 19, 2014. The couple is on a four-day tour of Canada.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul ChiassonPrince Charles and his wife Camilla chat with women singing a Gaelic milling song in Pictou, Nova Scotia on Monday, May 19, 2014. The Royal couple are on a four-day tour of Canada.

John Stillwell / EPAPrince Charles,and Camilla Duchess of Cornwall meet first nations people after arriving at an official welcoming ceremony in Halifax Nova Scotia, Canada, May 19, 2014 at the start of their Royal visit to Canada.

Chris Jackson/Getty ImagesCamilla, Duchess of Cornwall and Prince Charles, Prince of Wales lay a wreath at the Cenotaph as they attend an official 'Welcome to Canada' ceremony at Grand Parade on May 19, 2014 in Halifax, Canada.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul ChiassonPrince Charles chats with Governor General David Johnston during welcoming ceremonies Monday, May 19, 2014 in Halifax.

Chris Jackson/Getty ImagesCharles, Prince of Wales inspects an honour guard as he attends an official 'Welcome to Canada' ceremony at Grand Parade on May 19, 2014 in Halifax, Canada.

HALIFAX — to Canada on the first full day of a four-day visit to Canada.

People were bundled up against chilly weather and a light mist hung over Grand Parade, a square in front of city hall, as the Prince of Wales was welcomed by Gov. Gen. David Johnston, politicians, military officers and aboriginal elders. A 21-gun royal salute echoed through the city’s downtown as the prince inspected an honour guard.

The grey weather was used by Charles to get a laugh from those who lined the square to hear him speak.

“It is, as always, a special joy to be back in Canada again, a place that is very dear to us both,” he said. “This time to be in Canada’s historic ocean gateway to the Atlantic at the official start of summer.”

The royal couple also laid a wreath at the cenotaph and mingled with people during a walkabout around the square. Camilla’s outfit included Nova Scotia tartan.

The visit to Canada will see the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall also visit Pictou, N.S., Charlottetown and Winnipeg.

This is the couple’s second Canadian tour since 2012, but it’s the first time Camilla has visited the three provinces.
Charles was last in Manitoba 18 years ago, and he visited the two Maritime provinces in 1983.

The prince said he has fond memories of coming to Halifax 42 years ago as a naval officer through “an act of God” when the propeller of the ship he was serving on became tangled in fishing net and cable.

“An American net, of course,” he joked.

Later Monday, Charles and Camilla are scheduled to meet with war brides in Halifax at Pier 21, the home of Canada’s National Museum of Immigration.

The port was the entry point to Canada by ocean liner for thousands of immigrants, refugees, war brides and children who were taken out of Britain. It was also where 500,000 Canadian military personnel left to serve during the Second World War.

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“An extraordinary contribution from a country with a population with much less than it is now,” he said.

Charles also recalled how his grandmother, the Queen Mother, told Canadians almost 75 years ago in Halifax how they people in this country made her and the king feel as though there were glad to see them.

“Being with you here today, my wife and I have felt that Nova Scotians and Canadians are offering us what I can only describe as a thousand welcomes,” he said.

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Prince Charles and his wife Camilla arrived in Canada on Sunday to a low-key welcome from several Canadian dignitaries on the first leg of a four-day tour.

Charles and Camilla, wearing a cream, black and gold tweed coat with black gloves and carrying a Canadian black clutch bag given to her by a Canadian friend, were greeted by nearly two dozen dignitaries under grey skies at Halifax Stanfield International Airport.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul ChiassonPrince Charles is greeted by officials in Halifax Sunday, May 18, 2014. The Royal couple begin a four-day tour of Canada.

The royal couple spent a few moments shaking hands and Camilla was presented with a bouquet of blush pink and cream-coloured flowers from Grace Elizabeth Lenihan, 3, and Molly Jane Lenihan, 9, who are sisters from West Chezzetcook, N.S.

Both girls were wearing purple dresses with purple flowers in their hair.

The royal couple were then whisked away to Government House in downtown Halifax, where they met with Lt.-Gov. J.J. Grant and his wife Joan.

Charles, wearing a blue pinstriped suit, was also sworn in to the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada during a private ceremony.

“I… do solemnly and sincerely swear that I shall be a true and faithful servant to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II as a member of Her Majesty’s Privy Council of Canada,” he said near a painting of his grandfather King George VI.

The couple then attended a reception with local, national and international journalists who will trail the couple through three provinces this week.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul ChiassonPrince Charles and his wife Camilla arrive in Halifax Sunday, May 18, 2014.

It’s Charles’s first visit to Nova Scotia since 1983 and the first for the Duchess of Cornwall.

An official welcome ceremony will be held Monday outside Halifax’s city hall, where Charles will make the first of four speeches planned for the tour, which includes stops in Pictou, N.S., the P.E.I. communities of Charlottetown, Bonshaw and Cornwall, as well as Winnipeg.

The theme for the tour — the couple’s second Canadian trip since 2012 — is commemorating Canada’s past and looking ahead to the future.

Later Monday, the Prince of Wales will plant an English oak tree in the city’s Public Gardens, a tradition started 75 years ago by his grandfather King George VI.

The couple will visit historic Pier 21 and the Canadian Museum of Immigration, where they’ll meet war brides and veterans of the Second World War. They’ll also travel to the community of Pictou to learn about the province’s Celtic roots before boarding an aircraft Monday evening bound for Charlottetown.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul ChiassonPrince Charles, centre, and his wife Camilla, right, are greeted by Justice Miniter Peter MacKay as they arrive Sunday, May 18, 2014 in Halifax.

While in P.E.I.’s capital on Tuesday, the couple will visit the legislature and attend a youth parliament debate. Charles will also be honoured with a medal recognizing his contributions to Canada and deliver his second speech of the tour.

They’ll then tour the city’s arts centre guided by an actress playing Anne of Green Gables before flying to Winnipeg, where they will meet with children and learn about another famous cultural export: Winnie the Pooh.

Charles will also have the opportunity to feed a polar bear at a conservation facility in the Manitoba city — the last stop of their visit.

The heir to the throne will deliver two more speeches in Winnipeg before he and Camilla close the book on another royal tour.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul ChiassonPrince Charles and his wife Camilla arrive Sunday, May 18, 2014 in Halifax.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul ChiassonA pilot flies The Prince of Wales' Canadian standard as Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall land on Sunday, May 18, 2014 in Halifax.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul ChiassonPrince Charles and his wife Camilla are greeted by Justice Miniter Peter McKay as they arrive Sunday, May 18, 2014 in Halifax.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul ChiassonPrince Charles and Camilla the Duchess of Cornwall are greeted by officials in Halifax Sunday, May 18, 2014. The Royal couple begin a four-day tour of Canada.

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LONDON — Royal officials in Britain say that the brother of Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, has died after sustaining a serious head injury following a fall in New York.

According to The Daily Mail, 62-year-old Mark Shand is believed to have fallen while lighting a cigarette after attending a fundraising auction at Sotheby’s and then an after-party at a New York nightclub.

A statement said Camilla, her husband Prince Charles and all of her family members are “utterly devastated by this sudden and tragic loss.”

Shand, a travel writer, was in New York for an auction in aid of charities including the Elephant Family, an organization chaired by Shand devoted to saving the endangered Asian elephant.

“Mark Shand was a man of extraordinary vitality, a tireless campaigner and conservationist whose incredible work through The Elephant Family and beyond remained his focus right up until his death,” said the statement from Clarence House.

Camilla and Charles are due to go on a tour of Canada next month. It is unclear whether the death of her brother would affect those plans.

A statement from Elephant Family reads: “Today we have lost the head of our family. Mark Shand was a true force for conservation. He was both a legend and inspiration and above all our great friend. We ask at this time that people’s thoughts are with his loved ones. We will miss him always.”

Among those believed to have attended the fundraiser were Princess Eugenie and fashion designer Diane Von Furstenberg.